“How do I decide what to paint?” This is a common question I hear. Well, I’d say the answer is up to you but that’s a bit of a glib answer isn’t it??
Let’s have a look at how I decide what to paint.
Whether I’m working from a photo reference or from life en plein air, the same method applies. Something catches my eye and I’m stopped momentarily (or even longer!). Being conscious of that “something” is paramount. Yet this thing that has such a powerful effect on us can be just a small thing, seen in a short moment, and so we don’t pay it much heed. Except…that this is the thing that stopped us! Soooo important!!
Instead, off we go, creating a painting without any intentional regard for that initial spark. This can turn out to be a big mistake…that’s only discovered after all the effort and time of painting. 😕
When I’m planning a painting, I start with thumbnails. If you’re a regular reader here, I’m sure you aren’t surprised to hear that! In this way, I begin to hone in on what’s important about the image. I pay attention to that thing that made me think, THIS is what I want to paint!
With this “thing” in mind, being really clear about it, I can now make decisions about what I will include or remove, what I should rearrange so that everything within the picture supports “the thing” aka My WHY.
This is the process I go through to decide what to paint.
In my painting of laundry seen in the town of Pula, Croatia, it was the laundry that caught my eye. It was the assortment of clothing blowing about on the clothesline and the laundry’s relationship to the accompanying building that was “the thing” that stopped me.
If you look at the reference, you can see how much else there is in the photo. I could have chosen to include much more. But why would I when I had decided I needed to make the laundry the primary focus of the painting.
With this decision in mind, I then asked myself, what else was going to support my main idea? And, what would detract from it?
These are things I think about, that help me decide what to paint. Without the thumbnail, I’d probably start in and include waaaaay more than I need to.
In an alternate painting, maybe my focus would be the warren of streets and buildings. Or maybe it would be the woman who appeared and was leaning over the parapet. These are all options for painting, and each slant would give a different feeling and a different result. Reviewing the various possibilities helps me decide what to paint. Always, I try to choose one main idea for each painting. If I paint everything, I say nothing!
In the video below, you’ll see me at the start of my decision-making process. I show you the reference photo and talk you through my deliberations as I decide what to paint, what will be left in, what will be cropped out, what will be shifted and changed. You’ll see how it all relates to my thumbnail.
Then we jump ahead and you see me finishing up the painting. You’ll see much more than just my decision-making process!
Here’s a photo of the thumbnail.
I made the initial drawing in vine charcoal on Pastel Premier paper. Then I created the pastel underpainting in the same value areas as the thumbnail.
The next two images are different stages in the development of the painting. It’s very unusual for me to leave a part of the paper untouched as I cover the rest of the surface. The reason was, I wanted to add bright, light colours for the laundry and felt I wanted to do that without too much layering.
And here’s the final painting again. You can see how my earlier preparation deciding what to paint paid off in the end!
And here are the Unison Colour pastels I used.
Can you see how my thumbnail helps me decide what to paint? It helps me get clear on my main idea. It solidifies what’s the real reason I want to paint this scene and what I can do to ensure everything else enhances it.
I’d LOVE to hear from you! Was this helpful? Do you have questions? Be sure to leave them in the Comments!
Until next time,
~ Gail
PS. Want to see the full-length video as I work through the painting from start to finish? Then why not join IGNITE! My Art-Making Membership!
8 thoughts on “How I Decide What To Paint”
It is what you leave out, that has made it such an interesting subject. I would have put the other buildings in and it would have ended up as another ho hum boring painting
Hi Marcia! I do hope this post helps you to hone in on what’s most important.
It doesn’t always mean cropping in close – you can achieve the spotlight feeling in other ways – but I hope you can see why knowing what stopped you helps you decide what to keep in, what to remove, and what to rearrange!!
I do think this is THE fundamental question to answer. Why waste skills, materials and time on an effort with no impact? That said, I find the decision-making very daunting and appreciate your guidance. As a former journalist I think it’s difficult for me to choose to exclude some information while adding or emphasizing other details. Thank you for sharing your rationale.
I’m glad you think so Karen!
And yes, there’s nothing easy about deciding what to paint and often there are many paintings we can do from one scene/subject – it’s all about the emphasis and angle. What is it we want to say?
Interesting about your former career influencing your journey in art!
This is a gorgeous painting! I see now that by creating a thumbnail, I will be able to decide what to leave out of a reference photo. Doing that thumbnail also gives me the time I need to make a better decision on what to include.
I do have a question: why did you leave the person out? I’m always told to add figures to landscapes & cityscapes because it will say that ‘life is lived here’. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks so much Patti!! YES! Thumbnails are so good for helping you make decisions before you start painting.
As to your question…I love doing figures but in this case, I felt the figure would detract from my star – the laundry. For me, laundry says exactly that – life is lived here!
Yes, I do see what you mean – laundry does say that there is life here. Always learn so much from you. Thanks!
🙂